Does Russian Roskomnadzor control media content in Kazakhstan?

An amazing letter came to a Kazakh news website NewTimes.kz from the Russian Roskomnadzor. The foreign regulator demanded to delete the reprint of the BBC article on EU sanctions against Russia, as it violates Russian law. Roskomnadzor threatened to block the website in Russia if the news was not deleted within 24 hours. The most interesting thing is that Roskomnadzor did not send its letter to NewTimes.kz editorial office, but to the hosting provider of the website.

The editorial board prefered to delete the news so as not to lose its Russian readers. “We decided that now we have no right to deprive the Russian audience of access to information that is published on our website,” explained Dmitry Kim, director of NewTimes.kz.

 "Adil soz" commnets:

 We are not trying to interfere in the editorial policy of NewTimes.kz, but it seems to us, that  Kazakh media should first of all think of not depriving the Kazakh, not the Russian audience of access to objective information.

The precedent when a state body of a foreign state sends a notification threatening to block the media of the independent state of Kazakhstan is at least bewildering. Such actions, of course, should not be ignored by the state bodies of Kazakhstan. Let us remind that our Constitution prohibits censorship and guarantees freedom of speech and creativity.